Jun 1

Marler: "Mother Nature" sickened 146 with at least 36 Dead from Listeria Cantaloupe - Bullshit!

Unbelievable. This guy’s cantaloupes killed three dozen people, FDA documented all kinds of basic, remedial failures in their facilities, and he has the gall to say that it was “something Mother Nature did. We didn’t have anything to do with it.” Just dumb luck I guess…

Yeah, buddy, you know what? Mother Nature made me too, and she made my fists, and she made your teeth, and if we ever meet, you’re gonna be picking up those teeth off of dear Mother Earth with broken fucking fingers. Asshole!

snakepunch

Jan 16

❖ On Cantaloupe and Marketing Orders

“The California cantaloupe industry has never been associated with a foodborne illness outbreak.”

— Steve Patricio, California Cantaloupe Advisory Board

A good bet: whenever a company, big or small, claims their food has never made anyone sick, they are probably wrong.

They just never got caught. It’s nothing personal. It’s just probability.

That’s why this wording is interesting. Patricio doesn’t actually claim that his product never made anyone sick, just that it’s never “been associated.” Clever. Lawyery. And true, maybe. But we know what he’s implying.

There are legitimate reasons to think that the dry conditions prevalent in California production might be less amenable to contamination and growth of pathogens than the wetter conditions they’re grown in elsewhere. And it’s certainly true that of the long list of recent outbreaks and recalls associated with cantaloupes, many are imported and none are from California (one on the list says California, but were actually imported from Mexico). Still, the origin of many of the outbreaks are unknown. More importantly, breakdowns happen without concern for state borders. Pathogens aren’t in the habit of checking drivers’ licenses.

Most mistakes are small and therefore most outbreaks are small and are never even identified as such. Most illnesses are never reported. When they are reported, the chances of finding the implicated food are small. And even when investigators figure out the food, the chances of tracing it back through a global food chain to the origin farm are tiny.

So has California cantaloupe ever made someone sick? I’d bet on it.

And so are California growers, it seems. Why else would they be requesting, as 99% of news headlines about this press release suggest, increased “government regulation?” Oh, well, it’s because they’re not. Is it even fair to call marketing orders regulation? These things are set up largely by industry and are principally and historically a tool for, well, marketing. Yes, they are enforced by law, but that doesn’t really make them regulation. This is why they are managed by the Agricultural Marketing Services (AMS) of USDA, and not the food safety people. And they have nothing to do with FDA, who have, arguably, the only true regulatory oversight for produce safety.

I tend to be wary of market agreements because they can be abused against smaller growers who can’t afford the systems put in place by the largest companies and because they can be used to fight innovation. What if some cantaloupe company developed some new protocols or practices that they felt were safer? What if they wanted to market on safety, and wanted to release some data to back it up? Would a marketing order preclude such a scenario? It could.¹

So I get cynical: Is this marketing order about safety or perception of safety? Is it about creating PR for California cantaloupes as being safer than those grown elsewhere? Is it about creating barriers to small producers within California who don’t follow the guidelines set up by the big guys? Is it about heading off FDA action by putting into place a friendlier scheme within USDA’s AMS? Is it about bringing in government oversight because the standards within the marketing order might be a good deal less onerous than those that might be created by downstream customers like grocery store chains? I’d bet on all of these.

But.

Here’s the thing: Marketing orders may not be regulation, and they may have some real competitiveness issues, but the question isn’t binary. It’s not: is this a perfect solution? Will this scheme, on its own and overseen by some form of government inspection, suddenly make everything safer? The answer is no. But the question we should be asking is: is this a step in the right direction? Is it a net positive that a significant chunk of the industry is moving forward on its own to deal with a food safety issue?

I’m with Don on this one: yes, this is a good thing. It could be a very good thing.

So, Colorado cantaloupe growers, it’s your turn. What do you propose?

My favorite example of a marketing order is the one that was set up in Florida for size and shape of tomatoes. The Florida Tomato Committee, an industry group, prevented one company from shipping so-called UglyRipe tomatoes, which are misshapen but supposedly far tastier, from being exported out of state. Think about that: they couldn’t ship out of state? Crazy. Basically, the commodity industry fought against someone who wanted to use market differentiation as a competitive advantage. The company had to lobby USDA for years to overturn the ruling, and finally won in 2007. Now you can buy these tomatoes anywhere. ↩

Nov 7

Listeria outbreak victims go beyond farm to target grocers, auditors

I’ve been watching this aspect of things play out, and I think these lawsuits are going to be a very big deal. There are simply not enough assets or insurance held by the primary businesses responsible for this outbreak to even remotely compensate the families for their losses. Everyone is going to get sued, and for big money. This could have major implications for how grocery stores and third-party auditors do business.

The three prime targets of lawsuits in the cantaloupe listeria outbreak have just $17 million in liability coverage for more than 130 illness cases that could easily cost more than $100 million, say experts in liability law.

The Denver Post reports the wide gap could make new legal targets out of grocery stores, distributors and auditing labs as victims seek richer funds for compensation, according to product-law experts.

“If they can get the deep pockets in, they’re going to get them in,” said Denver lawyer Justin Prochnow.

“I think the case as a whole has the potential to make new law in Colorado,” said lawyer Scott Eldredge, a malpractice and liability specialist who also teaches at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law.

…

Oct 14

donschaffner:

Listeria free? Really? Prove it!

Still, better than absolutely free and Listeria positive.

Oct 11

w455:

Death Star Cantaloupe

Originally via Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories

ChefDRM's Blog: Listeria Hysteria: how to handle your melons.

chefdrm:

If you enjoy cantaloupe and would typically eat it, this outbreak shouldn’t stop you. It’s still perfectly safe to eat, provided you take some reasonable steps that should be a regular habit when you eat melon to begin with.

…

Method 3: Sanitize by Fire

1. After performing your usual washing of the exterior of the melon under running water and scrubbing with a clean scrub brush, thoroughly pat dry the exterior with single-use paper towels, and discard the paper towels (do not let them sit on the counter - these could be contaminated!).

2. Using a propane, butane, or MAPP gas blow torch, burn the exterior of the melon until the entire exterior is black. If your melon has soft spots, these will bubble up and burst slightly as you move the torch over those spots, and this is perfectly normal. (The fact that this happens, in fact, shows that there is enough heat generated to instantly kill the bacteria.) As you turn the melon DO NOT place a burnt portion of the melon back onto the same area of your work surface where the non-burnt melon sat before, this would just re-contaminate the skin of your melon (though, in fairness, it still wouldn’t be nearly as contaminated as before).

3. Run the burnt melon under running water and scrub with a clean brush until the water runs clear (just because you don’t want the charred skin on the melon you eat…doesn’t taste right).

Something tells me I am less likely to be injured by eating raw cantaloupe directly off the dirt than by attempting to blowtorch it.

But hats off for a method I’d never thought of before:

Oct 8

❖ Fruit Salad

The thing about being that guy, by which I mean an annoying food safety person is that you go to a brunch thing and have to harass the host about the fruit salad.

What’s worse is that you do this even though you know that since cantaloupes haven’t shipped from Jensen Farms since September 10th, and since cantaloupe has a two week shelf life, there is less than a 0.00% chance that the melon in the fruit salad is contaminated. But you ask anyway just to gauge overall awareness and behavior.

And then you see her eyes turn to terror as she contemplates that she may have just poisoned her guests, including 4 pregnant women, and then you have to assure her that it’s safe if she bought the melon within the last week or so and she’s relieved and you’re the hero and everyone puts you on their shoulders and chants your name and dances you around the coffee cake and well OK maybe I’ve taken this story too far.

Bad Bad Batz

Look, my last name is Batz, OK? OK.